To Pink Or Not To Pink?

Updated: Aug 22, 2019

I think I may be going through some type of identity crisis, a few days ago I was struggling with the idea of what fun new color I could do on my hair. I have always been a redhead but as a new mom and trying to get back in the swing of taking new clients, and building up my client base again, I felt like I needed a new look. Maybe I could go purple or even a bright yellow…??? It could be fun!

Then I decided to help my teammate, Emily, take her always fashionable green hair back to blonde. She wanted to go back to a bubble gum pink that I thought would look fabulous on her!

I quickly changed my mind on my daydreams of being a fashionista myself after we started the very long process.

Here is a timeline of photos just to show you where we started, where we went, and the money and hours it took to get there!

Here is the breakdown:

Emily, because she is a stylist herself did two professional color stripping applications at home to get her from pic #1 to pic # 2. This took approximately two hours, the salon cost would have been $200.

The next day we went in with back to back foils with different strengths of lightener, to protect her fragile ends we added an in-house bond treatment to the mix. After another treatment we went in for the roots for a quick on scalp lightening (see photo #3). This process took 3 hours, salon cost $250.

Day 3:

Finally time for the pink! Emily and Susan mixed a custom hot pink base and blended it with a powder pink for her ends. This final process took 1 hour, salon cost $100.

Total Cost: $550

Total Time: 6 Hours- Over the course of 3 days

This process is not for the faint of heart or the light pocketbook.

If you find yourself wishing for a fashion shade here are a few things to remember:

Don’t just book a color appointment and expect that you will walk in brunette and walk out a unicorn.

These processes take hours, if not days to achieve. My poor little Emily even had to wear a hat for a few days so she could let her hair and scalp rest!

Don’t just expect that your regular stylist can achieve this. We love you, but we don’t always love doing all this fashion forward stuff. Sometimes it’s better to seek out a stylist who is 100 percent into this kind of technique!

These colors are not designed to be low maintenance. It’s going to take money to get there, and it’s going to take money to stay there. Trust me!

Lastly, but maybe the most important thing to keep in mind is… the colors you see in most photos are enhanced by lighting, computers or extensions. If you have naturally dark hair to your butt, you most likely will leave the salon with a hot pink pixie cut before you get to that ice blonde 4-foot long balayage.

I’m not saying it can’t be done… as you can see, I got my Emily where she wanted to go after all. Just know it’s not for everyone and FOR SURE this new mama is going to keep it natural for a while!